Port Dover brewer James Grant and Walsh hop growers Tim Wilson and Melanie Doerksen recently claimed top prize at the Great Ontario-Hopped Craft Beer Competition. The event was held Feb. 19 at the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention in Niagara Falls.

The Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association played host to the contest, which drew eight entries from across the province. Grant, Wilson and Doerksen won for a brew called Sweet Leaf Brown Ale, which is rated 5% alcohol by volume. Grant created the winning entry in the brew pub at the Blue Elephant Restaurant on Norfolk Street South.

“It’s about 30 International Bittering Units,” Grant explained on Friday. “It’s malt forward with a bit of hop because, after all, it is a hop competition. It’s obviously dark, but it’s an easy-drinking smooth, rich malt.”

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs sponsored the competition to showcase Ontario’s fledgling hop-growing industry. OMAFRA also wanted to shine a spotlight on the province’s growing number of craft breweries.

Contest rules required brewers to team up with an Ontario hop grower. Wilson and Doerksen have a one-acre plot near Walsh and plan to add another acre this year. The varieties they produce are known as Nugget and Cascade.

“This win adds legitimacy to the local food movement, local agriculture and the emergence of a new local crop,” Doerksen said.

Heather Pond, owner of the Blue Elephant, is proud of Sweet Leaf and the increasing number of craft beers produced on site.

“The payoff is the growing awareness that there is good local product available,” Pond said. “It’s all about education. That’s what we’re doing with our microbrewery – educating people about hops and that good beer is available at places other than the Beer Store.”

Sweet Leaf is Grant’s own recipe. It is available at the Blue Elephant beer store as lots become available.

Hops used in brewing are the female flowers produced by the hop vine. Hops impart a pleasing, bitter tang to beer while acting as a natural preservative.